Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos talk about the Segway in 2003

[biophase]

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Tim studied Jobs for a moment, then turned to the screen and put up a spec sheet about Metro and Pro. "As you can see—" began Tim.

"Let's talk about the bigger question," interrupted Jobs. "Why two machines?"

"We've talked about that," said Tim, "and we think—" I think [the design] sucks. Its shape is not innovative, it's not elegant and it doesn't feel anthropomorphic. —Steve Jobs

"Because I see a big problem here," said Jobs. "I was thinking about it all night. I couldn't sleep after Dean came over." There were notes scribbled on the palm of his hand. He explained his experience with the iMac, how there were four models now but he had launched with just one color to give his designers, salespeople, and the public an absolute focus. He had waited seven months to introduce the other models. Bezos and Doerr nodded as he spoke.

"You're sure your market is upscale consumers for transportation?" said Jobs.

"Yes, but we know that's a risk for us," said Tim, "because we could be perceived as a toy or a fad."

If they charged a few thousand dollars for the Metro and it was a hit, said Jobs, they could come out with the Pro later and charge double for industrial and military uses.

Schedule vs. Getting the Best Product Out There

"You have this incredibly innovative machine but it looks very traditional." The last word delivered like a stab. Doug Field and Scott Waters would have felt the wound; they admired Apple's design sense. Dean's intuition not to bring Doug had been right. "There are design firms out there that could come up with things we've never thought of," Jobs continued, "things that would make you shit in your pants."

There wasn't much to say to that, so after a pause Tim began again: "Well, let's keep going, because we don't have much time today to-" "We do have time," said Doerr curtly, changing his own ground rules. "We want to get Steve's and Jeff's ideas."

"The problem at this point is lead time in our schedule," said Tim. Jobs snapped his head from Doerr on one side to Dean on the other, as if he'd been slapped. "That's backwards," he said, his voice rising.

"Screw the lead times. You don't have a great product yet! I know burn rates are important, but you'll only get one shot at this, and if you blow it, it's over." Agitated, he turned to Bezos. "Jeff, what do you think?"

"I think we'd do a disservice to the machine if we didn't give a great design firm a chance," said Bezos in a calm, soft voice, trying to lower the volume. "I think Steve is right—that as he so elegantly put it, they could do things that would make us shit in our pants." Jobs grunted.

Full story - Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos meet "Ginger" - HBS Working Knowledge

 

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